Category / Hosea

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,and out of Egypt I called my son.2 But the more they were called,the more they went away from me.They sacrificed to the Baalsand they burned incense to images.3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,taking them by the arms;but they did not realizeit was I who healed them. (Read the rest of the chapter, here!)

This is one of the most tender chapters read to date in this project, and I so, so identify with it as a parent. Recently, I got mad at Betty. She was whining about something her sister did (which was really nothing) while they played play-doh side by side. I had had enough, and curtly told her to knock it off or I was going to take the play-doh away. She started crying, but also picked up her toy scissors and started playing forlornly with the play-doh. When she looked over at me with big, teary eyes while trying to cut the play-doh like I had shown her, I felt like a complete monster for yelling. I simply could not be angry with her, even though she had been in the wrong. Even when she is determined to turn from me, how can I give her up? How can I turn her over? If God loves us like I love my girls, then this chapter must be divinely inspired.

We only have a few days of Advent left. It is a time when we are preparing for the (second) coming of Christ. We prepare for a Christ of terrible judgement, but also an infant-child Christ, and the tender analogies presented here reminded me of that. In fact, it reminds me of one of my favorite pieces of writing about God. In Kristin Swenson’s God of Earth, she reminds us what we do with babies: “Babies demand full attention and all of our energy. We fetch them things, smile when they do, and weep with exhaustion at their impossible demands. We kiss their feet,” then she goes on to say, “Well played, God. To come to earth and be of earth, not as a gigantic dictator, not as a volcano, a great white whale, a celebrity princess or a hurricane — but as a baby. Stroke of genius.”

And it is. A baby, for all it’s helplessness, demands (and receives) adoration in a way that none of the great things listed above could. I know this passage wasn’t written about Christ – it was written about the unruly and hard-headed children of Israel – but the similarities remain. Not to get to sappy, but it is a beautiful circle of love: God loves us as Xyr children, we love God the infant Christ.

We are all children of God. I think I say that nearly every post. But I want you to stop and think about that for a minute. We are all children of God. Beloved infants. It is hard sometimes to do so, but try to remember that everyone, even the worst of us, was a helpless newborn. A chubby baby. An unsteady toddler. A small and wondrous being, worthy of love. At the very least this thought may help calm you down when someone in front of you goes 10 MPH below the speed limit for 15 miles. My hope is it helps you let go of any lingering resentments you may hold towards anyone who has hurt you in the past.

Lots of bad people are out in the world doing bad things, and this isn’t a plea to just paper over the worst so we don’t see it. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. If you see everyone as a child loved, it is harder to stand by while those terrible things happen. Would you want to see your baby in a border detention center? Would you want to see your baby denied healthcare for a pre-existing condition? Would you want to see your baby hungry, cold, or lonely? Of course not, and that’s the way God feels about all of us. This Advent, let’s prepare for the return of Christ – both terrible judge and lovable infant – by remembering our brothers and sisters in need. If we love God, we need to love them, too.

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Israel was a spreading vine;he brought forth fruit for himself.As his fruit increased,he built more altars;as his land prospered,he adorned his sacred stones.11 Ephraim is a trained heiferthat loves to thresh;so I will put a yokeon her fair neck.I will drive Ephraim,Judah must plow,and Jacob must break up the ground.

Oh hi it’s me again, two days in a row. I realized last weekend that Christmas was a little over a week away, and I really, really wanted to finish the book of Hosea before Christmas. When I started Hosea,I thought I’d have plenty of time, maybe be able to get back up to three postings a week with a few skipped, probably even have time to throw in a nice psalm or two…and here I am in crunch mode. But seriously, I want to finish Hosea before Christmas, so a post a day, here we go!

Also, I am not ignoring the horrible imagery of mothers dashed to the ground with their children. It is, unfortunately, a motif found in several places in the Bible. So when we get to another one, we can sit with it for a while, if need be. But today I wanted to focus briefly on something else.

Throughout the book of Hosea I’ve been paying attention to pronouns, and how they shift. Of course, this chapter is a metaphor (as is much of this entire book), and not about a singular person, so we can only assign so much weight to pronoun inclusivity. In other words, I don’t think 7th century BC Israel was a place known for it’s progressive views on gender. But even taking that into account, the two kingdoms of Israel (Ephraim and Judah) are referred to in singular and plural pronouns, as well as male and female pronouns – all in this one chapter. From he to they to it to you to her to them it’s difficult to follow exactly whom is being discussed, honestly. I don’t know ancient Hebrew, but I would be interested to know how some of those pronouns translated.

I’ve been thinking a lot about pronouns lately because I have a two-and-a-half year old at the (very normal) developmental age of getting pronouns wrong. She refers to herself as “him” often and tends to call anyone whose name she does not know a “little boy” regardless of age or gender. As she masters language this will change, but I have to say I find it kind of sweet. She’s just trying to figure out people at a person by person level, and broad gender generalizations (as well as many other generalizations) don’t exist yet. And those generalizations that do exist are still – for now – free from bias and based strictly based on observation. For example, to her, Mommy is pink and Daddy is brown. We are not “white” or “black” yet. I know the day will soon come when we morph from pink and brown to white and black, but for now I’m enjoying her innocence.

A few years back I heard a pastor use female pronouns for God in a sermon for the first time. And even though I liked it, it was jarring. It was jarring simply because it was something I wasn’t used to hearing. But I’m hoping that’s different with my girls. I’m hoping any pronoun used for God will sound normal to them, because God is all-inclusive of pronouns, bigger than pronouns, if we’re honest. Perhaps one day, Hosea will be seen as a more progressive book than it is viewed today, in part because it has these fluid pronouns. As an aside, it’s funny how popular opinions in Biblical studies can shift and sway – such as potential future views on Hosea. It’s something many see as a fault in the Bible, but I see it as proof that it is an ever-evolving text that always has some new and deeper meaning to reveal to us.

Hosea’s search for the right metaphor for his relationship with his God – whether it through his marriage with Gomer, or the constantly evolving imagery of Ephraim and Judah, or a parent-child relationship, has, I think, stumbled upon one of the greater truths that he didn’t know he was looking for: that God is inclusive of all. Of the prophet and the prostitute, of every gender, of every person. Hosea lacked the cultural vocabulary to describe it directly, but we can see it. It is a message refined by Jesus hundreds of years later: everyone is a child of God, God loves us all, and therefore we should love our neighbor as ourselves – regardless of what pronoun they use.

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Kind of a rough start to a blog entry the week before Christmas, right? But this chapter does ask us an important question: what will we do on the day of our appointed festivals? On the feast days of our Lord? Will we participate in hollow ritual, whether that be religious or secular in nature, or will we remember our true callings? Throughout these recent chapters – indeed, a major message that comes from numerous prophets – is that God does not want lip service, God wants our hearts and minds, our true dedication.

But what does that mean, exactly? For me, it means stewardship. I believe the best way to show our love of God is to care for what God cares for: Xyr creations. The Earth and all its inhabitants. So stewardship can take many forms, as you might imagine. That’s one of the beautiful things about it: you can find what makes you passionate and follow that path. And no one path is “better” or “right.” There are many, many problems that need to be addressed in this world.

For example, my two major motivators are environmental stewardship and combating racism/xenophobia. Those are broad topics, and I’ve explored them further I’ve zero-ed in on what really, really interests me. First, within environmental stewardship is the issue of food waste. Did you know that somewhere between 162-218 BILLIONDOLLARS of food waste is generated in America each year? That’s food that is thrown out at grocery stores and restaurants, by individual consumers, and the stuff that is left to rot in the field because it doesn’t meet harvesting standards (but is perfectly edible). Just one third of that wasted food would be enough to feed the 50 million food-insecure individuals in this country. Instead, it is in landfills producing methane, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. It is a sin of excess compounded by a sin of carelessness. Did you also know that there are two bills that have been introduced to Congress that would go a long way towards combating this waste….but they have languished since being introduced. (It’s the Food Recovery Act and the Food Date Labeling Act, both introduced by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine, you can read more about them here.) You can bet I call my reps about those bills, and spend a lot of time sharing facts like the ones above to spread the word. And while I’m far from perfect, I try to combat food waste at home, as well: buying only what we need, using leftovers in the next meal’s cooking, and composting as a last resort.

Second, racism and xenophobia, which need to be attacked from so many levels. The issue-within-the-issue, if you will, that really gets to me is governmental policies towards refugees. We are a country of plenty – as illustrated above by the sheer waste we are able to generate – and there is no reason we can’t reallocate resources to help those in need, including incoming refugees. I wrote more about why this issue is important to me last year, in this blog post. Again, I call my representatives, speak up on this blog and other forums, and donate when I can to organizations like IRC and RAICES.

But that’s just what I’m passionate about. And it’s OK if that’s not what you’re passionate about. My plea today is to just find what makes you passionate. Some other quick examples: My priest in Charlottesville cares deeply about healthcare in rural communities, as well as the rights and well-being of those in institutionalized care (such as the elderly or mentally ill). I have friends passionate about criminal justice reform. Others are dedicated to plastic-free lifestyles and spreading the word on the benefits of that, both personal and environmental. Many of my favorite accounts on Instagram are devoted to fighting fast fashion with it’s exploitative nature and environmental impacts.

Like I said, there’s a whole world of problems to be fixed. And that can be scary, when you think about trying to fix all of them. But God does not ask that of you. God simply wants you to be a part of the larger picture. When we are selfish, greedy, careless, we turn from God, as the ill-fated people in this chapter. But if we turn towards eachother, towards stewardship, we can avoid the horrors of this chapter, and that is something to rejoice.

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